Barcelona the Great Enchantress (Directions) [Hardcover]

Robert Hughes (Author)

Book Description

Series: Directions | Publication Date: June 1, 2004

Robert Hughes has been going to Barcelona regularly since the 1960s and was married in its Gothic city hall last year. Although in his new book Hughes is compelling and engaging in describing Barcelona's remarkable culture and history, his first subject is his 40-year love affair with the city. Thus it is a much more personal book than his earlier Barcelona. Since publication of that book in 1992, Barcelona has become one of the most vibrant and popular cities in Europe; Hughes describes the pre- and post-Olympics reconstruction that sparked the tremendous revival.Hughes begins the book with the decision to marry in Barcelona, "Where to get hitched? It ought not to be in Manhattan, where I lived. Neither Doris nor I is a particularly social animal. Neither of us wanted a fearsomely expensive wedding, and in my post-divorce financial blues almost anything from a New York caterer beyond a sausage on a stick and a can of beer seemed extravaganto?=.But there was a solution. It was Barcelona. Doris didn't have strong feelings about Barcelona-not yet-but I most emphatically did. I had been going there at intervals, to work and to disport myself, for more than 30 years. I had written a biography of the city, some ten years before: not a travel guide nor really a formal history, but something like an attempt to evoke the genius loci of this great queen city of Catalunya-and to tell the story of its development through its formidably rich deposit of buildings and artworks." Hughes goes on to describe the wedding, "Not only in Barcelona, but in the Town Hallo?=and by Joan, in his capacity as alcalde [mayor]. And not only by him and in the adjutament, but in its most splendid and history-ladenceremonial room, the Salo de Cent," and the party that followed in an ancient farmhouse. "I thought about a lot of things during that party, though with increasing muzziness as the evening lengthened. Mainly about Doris, about happiness, and about the very circuitous route which had led both of us to Barcelona. When I first spent a mildly riotous and sentimental evening at Xavier's [farmhouse], it was easier to imagine being dead than being over 60, and I had no more idea of Barcelona than I did of Atlantis. But if my grasp of Barcelona 40 years ago was lame and slight, so was that of most Europeans and Americans. Not just slight-embarrassingly so. The 1500 years of the city's existence had produced only five names that came readily to mind. There was Gaudi, of course, and the century's greatest cellist, Pablo Casals. There were the painters Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, and Pablo Picasso." Thus begins Hughes's lively and engrossing account of the history, the art, and especially the architecture of "La gran encisera," the name Catalonia's great 19th-century poet, Maragall, gave to his native city-"the great enchantress." He tells how at the end of the 14th century-when Madrid was hardly more than a cluster of huts-Barcelona commanded a trading empire as wide as the Mediterranean. Barcelona was always what a recent mayor called "the north of the south," the part of Spain closest in contact with Europe, technologically advanced, proactive in trade, passionately democratic. Its wealth made it one of the great Gothic cities, filled with architectural treasures of the 13th-15th centuries. Its language, Catalan, was the medium of an enormously vital literature. Crushed and colonized by theBourbons in Madrid in the 19th century, Barcelona nevertheless entered a period of prodigious industrial and architectural growth (rebuilt by, among others, the genius Gaudi). Repressed by Franco, who hated the Catalans, it has blossomed anew since 1975 and especially in the last decade.At the end of the book Hughes and his wife return to Barcelona for a one-person exhibit of her watercolors. "Once again I was off to my favorite city in Europe, or the world. For the twentieth time? The thirtieth? Long ago, I lost count. You are lucky if not too late in life, you discover a second city other than your place of birth which becomes a true home towno?=Some forty years ago I had that marvelous stroke of luck: Barcelona."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this pared-down version of his acclaimed Barcelona (1992), art critic Hughes traces Barcelona’s progress from a burgeoning port city to the booming Catalan capital that roughly 1.5 million people call home today. Hughes’s portrait chronologically flutters from one century to another, shedding light on the city’s cryptic history in a way very few non-Catalans can. Hughes treats the city as if it’s his own, and his critiques are justified and insightful, drawing on personal anecdotes, excerpts of Catalan manuscripts and anti-Castilian decrees. It’s not the details of cataclysmic events like the plague of 1348 or the bitter suffocation forced upon Cataluña by Franco that make Hughes’s book worthwhile, but rather the accounts of small events that transformed "one enormous ashtray, covered in a mantle of grime and grit" into what is now an affable, colorful, modern hub. The author poetically weaves politics, food, architecture, sport, myths and music into a striking depiction of the great Catalan seaport. 8 b&w photos, 1 map.
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Review

"Time magazine art critic Hughes writes a passionate love song to his chosen place; this book provides an eloquent introduction to Catalan culture and cuisine while whetting the traveler's appetite for the glories of a great world city." —Star Tribune (Minneapolis) 

"By turns funny, cutting and magisterial." —San Francisco Chronicle --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: National Geographic (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 079226794X
• ISBN-13: 978-0792267942
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #427,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Hughes was born in Australia in 1938 and has lived in Europe and the United States since 1964. Since 1970 he has worked in New York as an art critic for Time Magazine. He has twice received the Franklin Jeweer Mather Award for Distinguished Criticism from the College Art Association of America.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Got it right this time, July 17, 2004

By 

Stephen McHenry (Olney, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Barcelona the Great Enchantress (Directions) (Hardcover)

Essentially condensing, rewriting and updating his earlier work the 574 page Barcelona, this new 168 page version uses the examination of Catalan architecture to tell how the strong independent nature of it's citizens has created one of the most architecturally interesting cities in the world. The book begins with the Australian author's third and most recent wedding in the 700 year old town hall by the mayor of the city he has loved for 30 some years. A thorough knowledge of the history, culture, art, and politics of Barcelona presented with wit, keen observation, and an open fondness. Excellent book to read before going or if you have been, or for armchair travelers. Read this before the larger book, which you could read after this to obtain much more detail on the all aspects.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Barcelona Connoisseur, September 8, 2004

By 

John B. Dougherty (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Barcelona the Great Enchantress (Directions) (Hardcover)

I read this delightful book on a plane to Barcelona. It whet my appetite for the cultural repast to come. Hughes gives a foretaste of the rich melange of language, history, art, and architecture that makes Barcelona and Catalonia so compelling. Though Hughes clearly loves this city, the writing is fresh and he mixes in sharp opinions so the book never cloys. Delectable.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Quick Must Read, September 4, 2004

By 

Scott H. Shapiro (San Francisco, Ca) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Barcelona the Great Enchantress (Directions) (Hardcover)

Hughes makes the buildings, history and pride of the Catalan people come alive. His use of Architecture tells a quick story of a strong and independant people, with Barcelona at it's center. His love of the city and people is evident in his story of his most recent wedding in Barcelona. The great thing about the book is that you want more, I'm happy he has a larger volume that covers the city and its eccletic history.